Pupil’s deception unveiled as JAMB exposes faked UTME score for scholarships
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) announced on Sunday that it would invalidate the result of Ejikeme Mmesoma, a pupil from Anambra State, for manipulating her scores and falsely claiming to be the top scorer in the 2023 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).
JAMB revealed that Ejikeme used her inflated score to secure a N3 million scholarship from Innoson Motors and was scheduled to be honoured by the Anambra State Government before her deceit was exposed.
In a statement released by the board, JAMB clarified that numerous reports celebrating candidates for achieving high scores in the 2023 UTME were based on fabricated results.
“The Board is constrained to set the records straight and wishes to state unequivocally that many of the results which many of these candidates are parading are fake,” the statement read.
“In many instances, some of these candidates had actually obtained far lower scores than they are claiming and had used some funny software packages to manipulate their results to deceive unsuspecting members of the public.”
“The most pathetic of them all is the case of Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma, who claimed to have scored 362 in the 2023 UTME and was awarded a N3m scholarship by Chief (Dr.) Innocent Chukwuma,” the statement continued.
“She was even set to be honoured by the Anambra State Government when one of its top officials put a call through to JAMB to confirm her claim, only for the Board to reveal that Miss Ejikeme Joy Mmesoma had actually scored 249 and not the 362 she claimed. She had manipulated her UTME result to deceive the public to fraudulently obtain scholarships and other recognitions.”
Another fraudulent candidate, Atung Gerald from Kaduna, also claimed to have scored an aggregate of 380 in the UTME.
“A similar case was that of one Atung Gerald in Kaduna, who claimed to have scored 380,” the statement highlighted.
“His ethnic group had taken the issue up, requesting that he be given special recognition, only for the Board to disappoint them with the incontestable fact that Atung never obtained the 2023 UTME application documents, not to talk of sitting the examination.”
JAMB advised the public to verify candidates’ claims with the Board before hastily bestowing awards upon them.
“The Board would, therefore, want to advise the public to always cross check these claims by candidates with the Board before rushing to honour them with undeserving awards,” the statement cautioned.
“Certain software has been created to fake their version of their results and put same out in the public space for fun, and this is what the sponsors of these candidates are using to defraud good-spirited Nigerians such as Dr. Innocent, the founder of Innoson Motors, who sincerely desires to celebrate academic excellence by investing in the education of a young Nigerian.”
Regarding the punishment for Ejikeme, JAMB announced that her result would be withdrawn, and she would face prosecution.
“With this her ignoble act, Miss Mmesoma would be prosecuted and her original result withdrawn,” the statement confirmed.
“This is not all, as the Board would, in due course, investigate all candidates laying claims to higher scores than they actually obtained. Once discovered, such candidates’ original results would be withdrawn forthwith, and they would be handed over to relevant security agencies for prosecution.”
“We commended the likes of Dr. Innocent Chukwuma and wish to encourage other Nigerians, who desire to invest in the future of genuine youngsters, never to be discouraged but to always ensure that they get the authentic results from the Board as done by the Anambra State Ministry of Education,” the statement concluded. “